Automated booking and scheduling for CubeSats : Development of an automated Scheduling engine for satellite communication with emphasis on communication with CubeSats

• Main Author: Hemberg, Alexander
• Format: Others
• Language: English
• Published: KTH, Rymd- och plasmafysik 2015
• Online Access: http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-160615

This thesis work details the development of an automatic scheduling engine for satellite communication from the operational stand point of a ground station. The aim has been to create a scheduling engine that autonomously calculates passes for a large number of satellites over a ground station and assigns these passes to appropriate resources. The process used can be described as rule based scheduling, where each satellite is assigned a set of specic requirements that the scheduler tries to satisfy in order to create a schedule that satises all specied requirements. This approach is in contrast to the most commonly used scheduling today, where satellite operators request passes and ground stations try to satisfy these requests, often manually. With rule based scheduling satellite operators are instead allowed to set requirements and the pass times are chosen automatically so as to optimize the process and admit a higher utilization of available resources. It is shown that a typical utilization of a ground stations resources of about 60% can be achieved. In addition to the scheduling engine a simple web interface has been developed, allowing the control of all parameters and scheduling through a web browser, thus demonstrating the ability to make this system more widely accessible for a broader range of users. The development of a rule based scheduler illustrates the possibility of making the process of satellite to ground communications more streamlined from the part of the ground station while at the same time permitting an increase in the number of passes it can support. === Det har examensarbetet beskriver utvecklingen av en autonom schemalaggare for satellitkommunikation fran en markstations perspektiv. Syftet har varit att skapa en autonom schemalaggare som pa egen hand beraknar passtider for ett stort antal satelliter over en markstation och schemalagger dessa pass pa lampliga resurser. Processen som anvands kan beskrivas som regelbaserad schemalaggning, dar varje satellit som ska schemalaggas tilldelas ett antal specika krav som schemalaggaren sedan forsoker tillfredsstalla for att pa sa satt skapa ett schema som tillfredsstaller alla krav fran alla satellitoperatorer. Det har angreppssattet skiljer sig fran det som anvands mest idag, dar satellitoperatorer staller detaljerade krav pa vilka pass som ska bokas in hos markstationen, och personalen pa markstationen forsoker att tillfredsstalla dessa krav sa langt det ar mojligt, ibland manuellt. Med regelbaserad schemalaggning far satellitoperatorer istallet specicera ett set med krav for sina satelliter, och schemalaggaren valjer passtider sa att alla krav for alla satelliter tillgodoses pa ett sa eektivt satt som mojligt, sa att en hogre belaggning pa markstationen kan uppnas an vad som annars vore mojligt. Det visas i dokumentet att en belaggning pa ca 60 % ar mojlig med hjalp av regelbaserad schemalaggning; hogre an normalscenariot for en markstation idag. Utover schemalaggaren har ett webbaserat granssnitt utvecklats som mojliggor kontroll av satellitparametrar och schemalaggning via en webblasare. Pa sa satt visas mojligheten att gora ett sadant har system tillgangligt for ett brett spektrum av anvandare. Utvecklingen av en automatiserad schemalaggare illustrerar mojligheten att forenkla processen for passbokning av satellit till markstationskommunikation samtidigt som en forhallandevis hog belaggning kan uppnas.